Free festival in York attracts hundreds from across the UK and further afield

Kevin Glenton
·3-min read
Riders on the grasstrack racing circuit at York Cycle Festival 2024 <i>(Image: Kevin Glenton)</i>
Riders on the grasstrack racing circuit at York Cycle Festival 2024 (Image: Kevin Glenton)

A FREE two-day festival has kicked off in York today (June 22) and has already attracted visitors from across the globe.

York Cycle Festival 2024 runs until 4pm on Sunday, June 23 and The Press went along to take in the sights.

Read more about the event:  First York Cycle Festival will be at Knavesmire this weekend

The two days include rides for all abilities, trade shows, an auction and new for this year, grasstrack racing.

The event covers most of Knavesmire with an arena, trade shows, club stands and other cycling-related stalls (Image: Kevin Glenton)

A huge arena is staging the racing, along with skills sessions for kids.

As well as events taking place in Knavesmire, there are more than a dozen rides taking place in York and Yorkshire over short and long distances.

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Many of these trips to places like Stamford Bridge, Skipwith, and along the Solar System Greenway, sight of the old Selby railway line, are snapped up by the hundreds of riders who choose to pitch a tent and stay for the weekend from all parts of the country and further afield.

Douglas Masterleo, from Montana in the USA dropped in on his way up to the shoreline of Loch Ness and Inverness as part of an open-ended round the world bike ride which began on June 6, 2022.

Douglas said: “I learned about this event from a podcast featuring Andrew Sykes and it said he might be coming through this way.

“I have the opportunity to ride in the UK for six months as compared to 90 days in Europe, where my trip included passing through Portugal and Spain.”

Douglas Masterleo, 67, is on an open-ended round-the-world trip which began two years ago (Image: Kevin Glenton)

Author Andrew Sykes is one of around half-a-dozen speakers in talks planned for the weekend.

David Broadbent of Retrobike, a forum of classic and vintage mountain bikes and other two-wheeled machines added to the flavour of past and present at the event.

Vintage road bikes might go back as far as the Victorian era but a Raleigh Mag Burner BMX is a classic from the 1980s.

The Retrobike team with some of their vintage and classic mountain bikes and BMX bikes (Image: Kevin Glenton)

David said: “We have brought these bikes with a nod to being something a little different.

“We’re all in our mid-forties and grew up with the mountain bikes and the BMX scene which arrived here in the 1980s."

Charles Jepson from Blackburn has been coming to this event in all its guises for many years, as secretary of National Clarion Cycling Club 1895.

Charles Jepson (Image: Kevin Glenton)

His talk today is about The Clarion newspaper, the cycle club and the National Clarion movement.

Charles said: “I think the key thing at this festival is that there’s an atmosphere where anyone can meet a stranger and make friends.

“The great road rides are really well supported by organisers and the clubs and that gives a great opportunity for people to ride in an area they don’t know that well in safety.”

York Cycle Festival is in Knavesmire until 4pm on Sunday, June 23

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